Saddle.



F. CQBEAL.

SADDLE. APPLICATION FILED MAR-16.1915.

Pat ented Oct. 5, 1915.

Cir

rnEDEnIcKc. BEAL; or moaem'o omaare,mama.

SADDLE.

masses.

li pplication rna Iliarch 16,133 15. Serial ll o; 14,??8.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it lfllOWIl that I, Fi'inoEn'roKC. BEAL, a British subject,residingat the city of T0- ronto, in the county of York and Province ofUntario, Dominion of Canada, have in-' vented certain new and usefulImprove ments in Saddles; and I hereby declare that thefollowing is afull, clear, and exact 'description the same.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements insaddles, particularly of that type usedfor military purposes, theobjects of the invention being to so construct the saddle that,regardless offthephysical condition of thehorse, the withers will not bepinched or pressedupon; there will be 'no pressure upon the horsesspihegftheshbut der bones will have free and uncontrolled movement; andthe weight will not be upon the loi-ns but upon the muscles covering theribs; these being the essential [points in the fitting of the saddle forectmcmy'ofhorse flesh. s a

It is a well established principle in. military operations that acavalry soldier without a horse, or with one that is unfit for serviceis an encumbrance to his corps, and, for thatreason, allthoroughlytrained cavali' y soldiers areinstructed in the method ofsaddling and caring for their mounts, but on the march and particularlyduring a campaign the muscles of the horse waste away owing to excessiveuse and to the inability to feed and water at regular 'pe riods andconsequently it often happens, under these circumstances that a soldierstraining in the care ofhis horse is of very little avail, owing to hisinability to procure the means to artificially build up the back tocompensate for the wearing away of the muscles and flesh.

Cavalry saddles are required to be placed upon the horse with the frontof the saddle sutliciently far back to insure that it does not interferewith the play of the shoulders, and in the case of saddles of theuniversal or colonial type the side boards rest flat on the top of thehorses ribs with the front arch clear of the withers to the breadth ofnot less than two fingers when the rider is in the saddle. I With theexercise however of every care to comply with these requirements it isimpossible for the rider to maintain the correct position of the saddleon the back when the muscles waste away, owing to the fact that the sideboards are fixedly riv- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented @0135, 1915.

eted to the arches. Heretoforethe arches have been riveted to the sideboards and maintained 1'11 their spaced relation thereby; suitablewebbing being connected to the arches to support the leather forming theseat, withstraining webs connected tov the side boards and passingtransversely across the supporting webs.

To soconnect the side boards to thearches that "tliey will automaticallyadjust themselvesto theconformatio'n of the backof the horse regardlessof its physical condition is the essential object'of this invention, andthis "is accomplished by pivotally connecting io'clcin 'a lateraldirection and thus auto- ;ni'atically adapt themselves to the curvatureor 'rotundity of the back when placed thereon.

A the drawings Figure l, is a perspective View of a saddle tree made inaccordance 'th'e'si'de boards to the'arches so that they can I't-ree'shown in that figure; Fig. A, is a frag mentary perspective Viewof a modified means of pivoting the side boards to the rear arcl'; Fig.5, isa perspective view of the hinges by which the side boards arehinged to the arches; and, Fig. 6, is an inverted perspective View ofthe hinges shown in Fig. 3.

Like characters of reference refer to like parts throughout thespecification and drawings.

In the general construction of the saddle shown in Figs. 1 and 2, Imaintain the usual formation of the front arch Z) and rear arch 0 butinstead of riveting or otherwise securing these arches to the sideboards a, as here tofore has been the case, I preferably connect thesearches to two spacing boards a which extend from the front arch b to therear arch c and hold these arches in their spaced relation.

The side boards a, as shown in the accompanying drawings, are similar tothose used in the construction of the universal military saddle tree,but instead of being rigidly connected to the arches, are hinged orpivoted to the spacing boards a. For this purpose, each side board isprovided with two hinge plates (Z formed with hinge members (Z andpassing through the feet of the arches and the spacing boards are theshanks e of the hinge lugs e. The hinge lugs 6 correspond with the hingemembers d and are connected therewith by hinge pins 7 which pivot thesideboards a to the arches so the side boards can rock laterally andautomatically adjust themselves to the horses back.

In that type of saddle .in which the Web-.

bing is not necessary for thesupport of the saddle seat, the front andrear arches can be pivoted direct to the side boards, and, in this case,as shown 1n Fig. 3, each side board is preferably provided with twohinge plates Each 7 d formed with hinge members 6?. foot 0 of the frontand rear arches may be of substantially the same shape as its respectivehinge plate d and is formed with a hinge member, or members 0corresponding to the hinge members (Z and extending through the hingemembers d and c are hinge pins 7" by which the side boards are rockablyconnected to the front and rear arches b and c.

In all cases, the axes of the hinge pins should be in line so that theside boards can rock evenly on their hinge connections withthe arches orwith the spacing boards and theaxis of each D J for the stirrup leathersshould also be in line with the axes of the hinge pins so that the loadimparted to the side boards by the stirrup leathers will not disturb theadjustment of the side boards fupon the back of the horse,

As shown in Fig. 4, each foot 71, of the rear arch 0 may be of a pinformation and is ournaled in the hinge members it of its respectivehinge plate 71,, and as in the case of the constructions shown anddescribed Copies of this patent may be obtained for with reference toFigs. 1, 2 and 3, is in line with the corresponding hinge pin for thefrontarch b. 7

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the front and rear arches are provided withlocking devices, such as set screws 2, or the like, to hold the sideboards in their set position when adjusted to the horses back.

By mea nsof the foregoing construction,

them together and holding them in their spaced relation, in combinationwith a pair of side-boards, two hinged plates for each side-board, eachhinged plate having a set :of hinge members, hinge lugs having shanksextending through the feet of the arches,

and hinge pins connecting the hinge lugs to the hinge members. I

Toronto, February 20th, 1915.

FREDERICK o. BEAL. VVitnesses: V v

C. H. RIoHEs, STANLEY Rrorrns.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, 7Washington, D. G.

and a pair of spacing members connecting

